NA Market EAC
Tom Oniro explains why East African political federation has been such a difficult thing to realise – the history of betrayals in the region is too much for the “partner states” to trust one another.
East Africa Why political federation has been difficult to achieve
T
he clamour for a federal East Africa is yet to tackle the issue of many discords in the re- gion where historical injustices have meant that some commu-
nities feel superior to others and ethno- centrism and mistrust are rife. Moreover, when the old East African Community (EAC) collapsed in 1977, Ugandans and Tanzanians were bewildered that their Kenyan brothers and sisters actually cel- ebrated the demise of the regional bloc. Whereas the socialist-leaning presidents
of Uganda and Tanzania, Milton Obote and Julius Nyerere, were busy preaching brotherhood and oneness, the capitalist- leaning President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya was snatching any and every opportunity to enrich his people at the expense of the collective community; even including us- ing resources pooled from the regional kitty. Tat is why most economically via-
ble assets of the dead EAC are housed in Nairobi today. For example, at the time of the collapse, East African Airways had a fleet of 14 planes flying the regional flag. Kenya took three, Tanzania seven, and Uganda four. Kenya then expanded from three planes to seven in four years! It later came out that Kenyatta had
deceived Nyerere into switching some land on their common border. One such piece of land, it is said, is where the cur- rent Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa sits. Tat swathe of land is said to have be-
68 | April 2011 New African
Julius Nyerere of Tanzania (left) and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya in September 1961
longed to Tanzania while the foot of Af- rica’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, was Kenyan territory. But calculating that a harbour could
generate a fortune in the future, as com- pared to the foot of a mountain with oc- casional tourists here and there, Kenyatta convinced Nyerere to swap the two pieces of land. Mombasa, the seat of the former East
African Railways and Harbours (then the property of the EAC), is now the economic hub of East and Central Africa, while the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro has remained the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro with occasional tourists here and there. Mombasa is now the exit and entry
point for all maritime goods and services that dictate life in the land-locked hinter- lands of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DR- Congo and Southern Sudan. Any break- down in operations here practically means the dependent economies are brought to their knees. Politically, it is not lost on supporters
of the late Ugandan president, Milton Obote, that his overthrow by his army commander Idi Amin was conducted with the full knowledge of Kenyatta; at a time when the EAC was still in place. Amin’s coup d’êtat on 25 January 1971
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